Author: Matt Graham
Does Australia Need EU-Style Air Passenger Protections?
Last week, consumer advocacy group Choice awarded Qantas its annual Shonky Award for “unusable flight credits, delayed flights, disappearing baggage, and endless call wait times”. It described the flying kangaroo as “The Spirit of Disappointment” for letting down many of its customers. “People are still paying premium prices to fly Qantas, but it’s clear from … Continued
Australia-USA Flights at 50% of Pre-COVID Capacity
At the start of 2020, Qantas was selling around 34,000 weekly seats between Australia and five destinations in the continental United States. It’s now operating just over 13,000 weekly seats in this market, with services to Los Angeles and Dallas only. Virgin Australia, meanwhile, has stopped flying to the United States altogether. Virgin used to … Continued
Qatar Airways’ Bizarre Daily Melbourne-Adelaide Flight
Since the beginning of October, Qatar Airways has been running a Boeing 777 every day from Melbourne to Adelaide and back without passengers.
Has Virgin Australia Had Its Goldilocks Moment?
In the seven years leading up to the pandemic, Virgin Australia never once made an annual profit. Already in a weak financial position, it didn’t take long after COVID-19 hit for Australia’s second-largest airline to enter voluntary administration. Virgin Australia had been a good airline that was popular with passengers, but for too long was … Continued
QantasLink E190 Business Class Review (Adelaide-Darwin)
Last year, Qantas expanded its regional fleet by wet leasing Embraer E190 jets from Alliance Airlines. These aircraft are now being used on many regional routes across Australia, particularly out of Adelaide, Darwin, Alice Springs, Canberra and Townsville. The Embraer E190s flying for QantasLink have spacious cabins with Business and Economy seating. Economy seats are … Continued
Use Qantas Points to Fly on Bangkok Airways
Qantas Frequent Flyer members can now redeem their points for Classic Flight Reward seats on Bangkok Airways, a boutique airline based in Thailand. The expansion of Qantas’ partnership with Bangkok Airways was first announced in 2019 but delayed due to COVID-19. It’s now finally a reality. Classic Flight Reward seats in Economy Class are available … Continued
8 Excellent (Non-First Class) Airline Meals
When flying international First Class, the meal service is designed to be a luxurious, multi-course dining experience. But you don’t necessarily have to be flying First to get great food on board! Because airline meals are generally produced on a mass scale and are often reheated from frozen, they can at times be quite awful. … Continued
What Are The IATA Northern Winter & Summer Schedules?
Today marks the beginning of the 2022-23 IATA northern winter scheduling period. For passengers, this doesn’t really mean much – but it’s a significant date for airline schedulers. Many new airline route launches, cancellations or restarts are planned around the IATA scheduling seasons. With today heralding in the new IATA northern winter season, for example, … Continued
Qatar Airways Stops Selling Flights to Canberra
Qatar Airways’ new route to Canberra could be dead in the water before it even started. In July of this year, Qatar Airways announced that it would launch daily flights from Doha to Canberra via Melbourne from 1 October 2022. But shortly before this route was due to launch, the Qatari airline announced that the … Continued